After Sergio Aguero chipped David Ospina during Manchester City’s 3-0 Carabao Cup win on Sunday, Arsenal fans were once again left thinking: How does this man still play for our club?
While commentating on the City victory this weekend, Gary Neville mentioned more than once that Ospina makes him nervous and he’s not even an Arsenal fan. At that moment, as well as others, I’m sure most Gooners who were sitting at home nodded sagely.
Not that Arsene Wenger seems to agree.
“In my head, he’s definitely not a second choice because he fights with Cech,” Wenger said ahead of the final, reports the Daily Star.
“David’s world-class but, unfortunately, he is my number two. If you have no good second keeper, you can’t win any trophy.
“If you want to have two top-class keepers, you have to give them games or they don’t stay.”
As much as Shkodran Mustafi was at fault for City’s first goal, Ospina was caught in no-man’s land, looking terrified. The 29-year-old let Aguero simply chip him without so much as moving.
Man was complaining while Aguero ran through on goal. I don’t even know anymore. pic.twitter.com/l4qt3HNEyt
— Pádraig (@afcpadraig) February 25, 2018
This was Arsene Wenger’s choice of goalkeeper for the League Cup final, and while Petr Cech hasn’t been fantastic this season and Ospina has been between the sticks throughout the competition, the fact that the Colombia international is anywhere near the Arsenal first team is worrying. Especially after we sold Wojciech Szczesny to Juventus for £10m last summer.
Ospina has been hinting that he wants to move for more playing time since last summer. Fenerbahce and LA Galaxy were linked with a move for the shot-stopper but all moves fell through because his wages were allegedly too high.
At Arsenal, Ospina reportedly earns £40k-per-week. Presumably, the goalkeeper wants a pay rise or something similar if he’s going to be no.1 elsewhere.
This is where we run into problems because he’s not a very good goalkeeper. No one wants to fork out that amount for a shot-stopper that can’t stop shots.
Therefore, I think the real Ospina is at Arsenal has nothing to do with Wenger actually rating him. I think it’s because the club can’t get rid of him.